Thursday, August 3, 2017

An interesting story from The Tribune in Chandigarh, about kidney exchange in India, mentions the legal hurdles that must be overcome to take part in kidney exchange there. It also mentions that there is an app, for peer to peer kidney matching.

The legal hurdles:
"Both Narinder and Pramod said the procedure was not easy. “First, we had to take police clearance from our respective districts. Then, we had to submit an affidavit before the tehsildar. We had to appear before a panel of doctors of the Punjab Government and submitted our case as the transplant was to be performed in a Punjab hospital. The entire exercise took nearly four months,” said the two."

The app:
"On the lines of matrimonial websites, a city-based kidney transplant surgeon has devised a mobile application to help renal failure patients.
“With this app, relatives of a kidney patient can find a right match and get the kidneys swapped with one of family members. Suppose, someone’s father has suffered a kidney failure and his son offers to donate his kidney, but the blood group and tissues do not match, then the person can look for a donor with the same blood group. This app will help needy families contact each other and get the kidney swapped,” said Dr Rajan.
Since 2009, the Paired Kidney Exchange (PKE) has been legalised under the amended Human Organ Transplant Act of India. The Incompatible Kidney App or ikidney will allow all such patients to come under one roof."
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